Franz Josef to Wanaka

On the North Island, our bus would drive through roads cut into the hills, but the sides of the hills grew over with thick grasses. The same thing happens on the South Island, but the vegetation is so much thicker thanks to increased rainfall that it feels downright claustrophobic at times to drive through these narrow roads that almost feel like grass tunnels.

The drive from Franz Josef was interesting, as we passed over some mountain ranges and Allen pointed out how within a matter of minutes of cresting the highest peak, the vegetation changed completely. We stopped a number of times throughout the day to go on short walks along the bus route: Lake Matheson, Blue Pools, and a bunch of little waterfalls.

We arrived in Wanaka after driving around the huge, beautiful lakes of Wanaka and Hawea. Chantal and I opted to go to Puzzling World, which was made by a guy named Stuart Landsborough who loved puzzles and optical illusions so much that he made his living off of them. The complex has a huge maze (that we couldn't even finish-there's 1.5 km of passage ways!), a room full of famous 3D "following" faces, and an "Ames Room" where the lines of the floor and ceiling make the room seem normal, but really one side is much shorter than the other so you are a giant while your friend is dwarfed in the opposite corner. They used the technique to film Lord of the Rings with the hobbits.


After Puzzling World, we headed to Wanaka townsite. It is a beautiful little mountain town that sits along the base of Lake Wanaka with huge mountains surrounding it. It's a ski town in the winter, but we were there on a gorgeous summer evening. A bunch of Magic Bus members got together and decided to have a group Barbeque. Everyone bought something for the dinner, then we cooked up a delicious dinner with steak, grilled Portobello mushrooms, potatoes, and salad. We finished the meal off with a classic Kiwi desert- Hokey Pokey ice cream. Since the weather was so amazing, we were able to eat outside in the fresh mountain air. I didn't really see anything else in Wanaka other than the grocery store and the Lakefront, but that was fine. People always talk about how fantastic it is to meet and make the briefest of connections with people while you travel. This was one of those evenings. I was very much alive with energies of my fellow travellers.

An Afternoon Off

I'm currently sitting in a hammock on the deck of my hostel, catching up on all the 'sweet as' activities I've been up to over the past week and a half. When I left Edmonton just over a week ago, my hometown was experiencing its first blizzard of the season. I drove around the city to say goodbye to a few friends even though my car tires could barely grip on the roads. Now, I'm getting a sun tan in November next to an out of place Santa Clause who is out as a Christmas decoration. Life is strange, but beautiful.

My tour bus is all up on Franz Josef glacier, but I have opted out because I'd like to come back with more time to do a full day tour of the glacier. I think deep down I'm not quite ready to be around snow again. Also, I don't really want to do everything touristy there is to do in New Zealand all at once when I have a whole year to visit everything (well, I hope so anyways).

So for today, I'm going to sit back and relax on my hammock and soak in some sunshine. I am a happy camper.

The West Coast

The West Coast on the South Island of New Zealand has a culture all to its own. It kind of reminds me of redneck hicks you'd find in Southern Alberta, or maybe Texas. Is that rude? Oh well. Our morning stop was at a random cafe in the middle of nowhere that was also a history museum from the days when brave New Zealand souls caught deer by jumping out of helicopters and wrangling them to the ground. I shit you not.

For 2 dollars, we got to go into the museum area and see artifacts from the days of deer trapping as well as watch a documentary about the era. I kept waiting for someone to say "GOTCHA!" but it never came. 80 people actually lost their lives jumping out of helicopters. The idea behind the whole thing was that deer were introduced to New Zealand in 1861, and over the next 100 years, they bred like crazy and started to take over the south island, so much so that their presence was negatively impacting the natural landscape and native animals. So, deer hunters were hired by the government to kill up to 60 000 deer each year. This went on until they hit a peak in 1967 of 110 000 deer being exported for their meat, but at that point, deer populations began to decline and their monetary value could not be ignored. The only natural thing to do was trap the deer and bring them to farms where the animals could be raised for their venison. By jumping on them from helicopters. ...

Regardless, deer farming is now a multi-million dollar industry in New Zealand.

The building was full of clever little signs and insults mocking other parts of the world and Auckland. They mocked drinks like latte's (we only have coffee here!) and had a huge area devoted to the evils of 1080 poison which is used in New Zealand to kill off other introduced pests like possums and stoats. A large portion of the rest of the world has banned 1080, since it can be really bad for humans if used improperly. The cafe seemed to be anti possum, but they did have 2 as pets in cages in the back so I'm not really sure what the idea was there. Strange folk on the west coast.

Greymouth

Allen's answer as to why we had to stop overnight in Greymouth was because the driver can only go so far each day, legally speaking. It actually seems like the only reason you would stop there. Greymouth is, however, home to the Monteith's brewery, which is my second favourite New Zealand beer. Normally, the brewery is open to the public for tours. However, it's currently under renovations, so they bring in guests to watch a video on the beer making process, and then have a taste of everything. I had no desire to pay money to watch a video, so I convinced Chantal to just go to a pub and drink beer- this way we could have our own taste test and avoid the lighter beers that neither of us enjoys anyways.

We wandered around Greymouth, trying to see if there was anything cool, but for some reason New Zealand was having a national holiday and everything was closed. This was okay in Nelson, not so much in Greymouth. It was worse when you consider the fact that everything was shrouded in fog so the town seemed quite desolate.

Our wanderings brought us to the pub that the brewery tour would end up at, and there was a random Kiwi guy standing outside who told us to come in for a beer. We were going to go in anyways, but we didn't want him to think he was the reason, so we looked around the outside of the building before heading in. The guy was standing at the bar and immediately said "Atta girls!" He was wearing tall white rain boots and kind of looked like a hobbit. Still, he was quite friendly and engaged us in conversation while we ordered beers. When we sat down at a table, he came and sat down next to us. It was interesting to hear about his life as a fisherman, and he had a lot of friends in the bar who came and sat with us. I felt like I was getting a lesson in Greymouth 101. At one point, he invited us back to his boat for some fresh cooked fish. He claimed he was just being friendly, but Chantal shrugged off the invitation easily enough. We were out of beer, so I headed to the bar to grab the next round. When I went to pay, the bartender grabbed my hand and warned me about the character of the fisherman we were talking to. Sketchy. When I came back, I tried to tell Chantal but she didn't quite understand my mumblings. Lucky for us, we decided to order dinner from the bar (only 15 dollars for 3 salads and a delicious burger) so the fisherman couldn't keep pushing us to come with him. When Chantal went up to get more beer, the bartender warned her away from our new friend too. After a while he got distracted by the VLTS in the bar though, and left us to chat with his young employee who left school when he was 13 to make his riches on a fishing boat. I think he had an IQ close to a boot, poor guy. He kept trying to explain how unfair it was that he did all the work and his boss got all the money (.. yup, that's how the world goes round!)

Our Magic Bus friends showed up when we were eating and headed into the restaurant area for dinner. When our young fisherman disappeared into the toilets, we ran away and stayed with our travelling buddies for the rest of the night, partly to avoid the sketchy fisherman, but mostly to get away from the ridiculously boring young employee.

Going to a pub on a Monday night to get a taste of what a town is about is probably not the best way to get a good impression, but it did make for quite an entertaining evening.

Cape Foulwind and Pancake Rocks

The West Coast on the South Island of New Zealand seems to have a culture all to its own. Allen told us that it was the prettiest drive on the South Island route, but sadly the fog rolled in and completely clouded over any view we may have seen. On the North Island, I could not pull my eyes away from the window. The view never got old. On the South Island, Allen's voice and something about the bus lulled me to sleep every time the bus started moving. Luckily, the Magic Bus stops about every hour to do more sight seeing, so I didn't ever sleep the whole day away. One stop on the west coast was Cape Foulwind, named so by Captain Cook. It's a fur seal breeding colony, and after walking 10 minutes down a path, you can get really close to them. The stop also had a bunch of Weka, native New Zealand Birds that look similar to a kiwi since they don't seem to want to fly, but they have much shorter beaks, and are not nocturnal. I had just woken up from a nap, so I was late getting off the bus. The fog was intense, and I walked all the way to the look out on my own which made the path all the more ominous. Still, it was gorgeous.


Our lunch stop was at Pancake Rocks, which I had heard a lot about before hand, but it never seemed that impressive. I took a bit of a time out to call home, since my family was all together for my little niece Taya's first birthday. After that, I headed out to the rocks, which were actually fantastic. Unsurprisingly, the area was full of rock formations that looked like stacks of pancakes. My favourite part was near the end, where the path curved through the rock itself and I could touch the stone. Once again there was fog everywhere, but it added to the appeal.

Getting Old, Or Danielle's First Two Day Hangover

I would like to preface this blog entry by reminding you (and me) that I only had 4 hours of sleep after my big night out, and the next night I only managed to get about 6 hours before I had to catch the ferry. So I was definitely running low on sleep and recovery time. After waking up, I got on a 3 hour ferry ride where conditions were not completely favourable (choppy seas) and then, to top it all off, got back on the Magic bus, which follows the curviest, most twisty roads I've ever seen at top speeds. Excuses aside, I have now experienced my first 2 day hangover. And like a sane person, my response is NEVER. AGAIN.

The ferry ride across the Cook Strait is supposed to be one of the prettiest crossings in the world. I took the word of the tour guides and books and slept through the first hour as we departed Wellington. No regrets though, since we have to come back up to the North Island at the end of our tour. I was finally convinced to leave my seat when the PA announced free Earl Grey tea testings on Deck Seven. Free tea? Hell yes. (I chose Number 4 as the best new flavour). Since we were already up, we headed up to the observation deck and were astounded at the lovely green hill and islands jutting out into the ocean. It is a truly spectacular route as the ferry works its way through the fjords towards Picton. Just before we arrived, the captain came on the PA system and announced dolphins swimming along side us on the starboard side. Luckily that's where we were sitting, and we were able to watch them jump and frolic for a while before swimming off somewhere else. It was quite a fantastic Sunday morning.

When we departed the ferry, the Magic Bus picked us up. Our new driver's name was Allen, and he had big shoes to fill after how amazing Kate was. He took us south through the Marlborough wine region, where we got to taste some really great white wines (what the region is famous for) and it only cost us two dollars. Not even a hangover can dissuade me from 2 dollar wine.

We arrived in Nelson that afternoon, and I had pretty high expectations for the town since it was where my cousin Patrice chose to settle down when she came to New Zealand. Unfortunately for us, we came to Nelson on a Sunday, and while the town seemed like it had potential, everything was closed. We made dinner in our hostel, but were feeling really restless so we went out for a beer. The first pub we went to was a Mac's place - Mac's is one of my favourite New Zealand beer breweries and they had everything on tap (yay for Sassy Red and Great North!) Later on, we were wandering around town (ghost town) when we stumbled upon some wonderfully boring, stereotypical Americans. I'm sure they were quite nice, but one of them had no idea how to say Trafalgar, which is the main street in Nelson and we made fun of him for it for quite a while. They convinced us to come to the only happening place in town (it wasn't, really) and ordered bad beer, then made awkward conversation for the next hour. Between Chantal and myself, we can pretty much have a great conversation with anyone. Not these lovely men. Oh well. At least they made the night more memorable.

Weekend in Wellington

As our bus approached the national capital, we played the first Flight of the Conchords album in tribute to Bret and Jemaine who grew up in Wellington.  We arrived in town around midday, and Kate, our lovely bus driver, took us all the way up Mt Victoria. I don't know how she did it in that bus when the roads were so narrow and curvy, but she was flawless. Mt Victoria is an amazing lookout spot to see the whole Wellington area, and after the torrential downpour in National Park, it was nice to see blue sky. We headed down and said goodbye to the Magic Bus, because Chantal has a friend who lives in Wellington and we had planned to spend the weekend with her.


Mandy was born and raised in Wellington, so she acted as the best tour guide we could have asked for, not to mention the fact that her friend was out of town, and let us crash in her apartment so we had our own place. Even better was the fact that for the first time in a week we were spending more than one night in a place, which we were very thankful for. The first night, Mandy took us for a walk through the Botanical Gardens (which are absolutely gorgeous) and then out for dinner in downtown Wellington. We were a bit tired, so we headed home early.

The next day, Chantal and I slept in, taking advantage of the chance since we had to be up and ready to go before 8 each day on the tour. When we finally headed into town, we had a lovely afternoon wandering around the waterfront, shopping on Cuba Street (similar to Whyte Ave) and exploring Te Papa - New Zealand's national museum that has it's own earthquake simulation house. I really don't want to experience an earthquake. By the time we made it through the first floor of the museum, we were having a bit of trouble focusing, so we left, which was perfect timing for Mandy to get off work and drive us back to where we were staying.

We made a quick dinner, and then drank wine and had a mini dance party while preparing to go out for the night. We met up with people from the Magic bus thanks to the convenience of cell phones, and danced the night away with 4 Irish girls, Peter from Denmark, and Kate. Somewhere in between that first glass of wine and 4AM when we got home, I had a lot to drink. Hooray for being drunk in a brand new city. I fared a bit better than Chantal, who fell down some stairs early on in the night and twisted her ankle before the alcohol really started flowing, and then danced on it all night long.

I woke up in the morning after 4 hours of sleep and didn't think I was capable of moving for the rest of the day. Hooray for being hungover in a brand new city. We took it easy, and watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Chantal's ankle was seriously swollen, and as we were both damaged goods, we didn't move from the house until Mandy picked us up around 2, took us to a physio for Chantal and KFC for me (best hangover food of my life). Mandy lives just outside of the CBD in Wellington in a suburb called Miramar - which is also where Peter Jackson lives. We drove around the peninsula, saw Peter's house (very unassuming) and stopped at Scorching Bay to lay on the grass in the sun, eat our KFC, and where I tried my very best not to puke. We spent the rest of our afternoon in a cafe playing cards, and Mandy and Chantal tried to think of something to do for the evening. I imagined sleeping for the rest of my life.

We ordered pizza for dinner, scarfed it down, and headed to a movie at the local, Peter Jackson-influenced theatre. The main foyer is split between a ticket office and a fancy little cafe, and the second floor has a classy lobby that you can rent out and host parties in, right in between the theatres. The theatres themselves were really cool, with each seat being a large comfy leather couch to curl up in, and a wooden table on the arm rest for any drinks you might want. I don't think you could order popcorn here, it's much too classy. The film we saw was Anonymous, which is a film about the questionable nature of Shakespeare's identity, and a story created by some writers to answer to that. I really liked it, and especially considering how much like death I felt, I stayed awake and focused throughout the whole thing. Highly recommended. After the film, we went downtown to check out the Telecom sponsored electric Christmas tree, which is set up near the harbour and has bean bag chairs underneath for people to relax on and look up at the brilliant light show that the tree features. It was really cool, but I was falling asleep in the chairs.

We made it back to the apartment around midnight, and then had to pack and be ready to go at 6 the next morning. Oh travelling.

Caution: Kiwis Crossing

Our next overnight stop was in National Park, which is the name of the town sitting between Whanganui National Park and Tongariro National Park. Kiwi's just call the entire area National Park. This really confused me because I was waiting for the specific name of the park that never actually came until I finally asked Kate, our bus driver, who had to think about it for a second. It's a strange nickname since there are a lot of other national parks in the country, but I guess whatever you're used to.

On our way to the town, we stopped at Tawhai Falls, which is a lovely, secluded waterfall that you have to hike to, and is where they filmed the scenes of Gollum fishing in Lord of the Rings. Chantal and I were still giddy from the glow worm caves, and we couldn't stop singing Gollum's song:

The rock and pool
is nice and cool
and juicy sweet
Our only wish
to catch a fish
so juicy sweeeet!

We climbed all the way over to the waterfall itself, which made as feel as limber and sneaky as Smeagol himself. I definitely could have relaxed for a while around the pool, but the bus only gave us half an hour, and we had to walk back. We also stopped by a "Caution: Kiwi's Crossing" sign which kind of blew my mind. *Pinch* Yup, definitely in New Zealand.

As we arrived at the hostel, it started to rain, which continued for the rest of the night. The restaurant next to the hostel offered us a delicious backpacker's buffet with all you can eat steak for only $14. I can never turn down steak, so we spent the evening with our fellow travellers in the restaurant and the rain never really bothered us. It was here where Chantal and I really started to get to know our bus driver Kate, who had found a ring on the bus and brought it to the restaurant to try to find the owner. After the 5th time explaining this, Kate just said "Oh I'm looking for a husband." Love her.

National Park is the set off point for the Tongariro Crossing, which is one of the most famous day hikes in the world. Chantal and I didn't have the time to do it, and honestly, I don't know if I had the level of fitness necessary to do it. Because of this, the rain in National Park didn't really bother us. We just joked with the bar tender that the mountain ranges that surround the town don't actually exist, the Kiwis just put them up like decorations in nice weather. For some of the other travellers, the rain was the worst thing that could happen since the Tongariro closes in bad weather. We found out later that some of our bus waited for 3 days for the trail to open, but it never did. I still want to do the crossing sometime in the future, I just need to start doing a sunshine dance to the weather gods so I don't have to be stuck in National Park for a few days with nothing else to do. I should also probably start exercising a bit more. But there's still time for that, right?

Waitomo Caves

My friend Andrea told me about the Glow Worm caves of New Zealand before I came – her sister visited them and had an amazing time looking up at the tiny twinkling lights on the ceiling of the caverns in the central north island. When I got to New Zealand, fellow travellers didn't find them quite as interesting as Andrea's stories and said it wasn't quite worth the price.

Still, Chantal and I signed up for “Black Water Rafting”, which essentially is where you get all dressed up in a wet suit, grab an inner tube, and float down a river in an underground cave. The guide was quite cheeky, and when we got into the cave, made us turn off our helmet lights so we were sitting in the pitch black, and then threw his inner tube against the water to scare the shit out of the glowworms – literally. The glowworm poo is what lights up in the dark and the louder the noise, the brighter the glow. Of course, making loud noises in the dark of a creepy cave also scared us.

The entire tour was amazing, but the best was when the guides got us to lean back in our tubes and look up at the pretty glow worms, which really feels like you're gazing at the Milky Way. Our rafting route was a lot of fun, and included a drop zone where we had to fall backwards about 10 feet while sitting in our tube, and another area where we had to go down a long slide in the pitch black. When I landed at the bottom, I couldn't hear or see anyone until I heard Chantal calling from around the corner. We assumed we had to walk on, but the further we walked, the less sure we became since we didn't run in to anyone and couldn't hear anyone. Finally, we (actually) saw the light at the end of the tunnel and climbed the hundred stairs necessary to leave the caves. It was absolutely phenomenal.

Glow worms!

New Zealand Scenery

Although Chantal and I generally prefer being tourists on our own versus on a tour, we decided to try the Magic Bus Tour company to get around New Zealand. It seemed like a good idea at the time since the bus is hop on/hop off as you please, and we wouldn't have to plan too far in advance on our own. After 3 days on the bus, we were definitely satisfied with our choice. The Magic Bus stops at all the cool places along the tourist track, and if we want to participate in anything extra like skydiving, Hobbiton, or anything else we just have to sign up on the bus and get the group/tour bus deals.

The bus route itself is worth the price we paid - the scenery is just constantly beautiful. I am always afraid of falling asleep just in case I miss anything. So far on the North Island, the landscape of the country is constant green rolling hills that are home to thousands of grazing sheep and the occasional herd of cows. In the more hilly parts of Canada, dynamite is often used to blast out a narrow path for the highway. In New Zealand, they seem to use the same method, but the steep carved out walls are made of soil rather than stone, and have grown over with lush grass and small bushes so it just feels like you're driving through a field. Must. Stay. Awake.

Well I Just Jumped Out of a Plane..

One item that has been on my bucket list for a few years has been to skydive. While I was set on doing it sometime in my future, Chantal was a bit more reluctant to throw herself out of a plane (I can't imagine why). Taupo is known to be the cheapest place to skydive in New Zealand, and it's also cheaper than if I had gone in Edmonton. As we approached Taupo on the bus, the activity sign up sheet came nearer to our seat, and we had to decide if this was real. Chantal and I had talked about it before, but the day before we had convinced ourselves out of it. “We've spent so much money already! We can see if we have the funds on the way back up!” “I'm not really sure if I'm mentally prepared for this yet, let's not go..” “You can go if you want! - Nah I won't go without you”.

Two American girls were sitting next to us, also debating whether or not to jump. Together, we convinced eachother to go. Well, they convinced me to go, and I wrote down Chantal's name for her while she stared at me a bit dumbstruck, unsure of what she had half agreed to. 

The bus stopped at Huka Falls, and our driver told us that the skydive van was coming to meet us to pick up the first group of skydivers. She had 5 volunteers, and needed two more. “We'll go first!” I said excitedly. I don't think Chantal has ever sent me daggers like that before. We took a quick peak over Huka Falls, but didn't really 'see them' since we were so distracted by our future reality. When the van arrived, we all hopped in and were given waiver forms to sign- if you die, you can't sue, blah blah blah. When we got to the airfield, I got continually more and more excited. Chantal became more and more afraid. Sadly, we got put into the second plane going up, so we had to wait around and not think about all the sky diving accidents we had heard about. Still, it wasn't too long before we started to see the parachutes coming in. The tandem divers made nice, easy landings, but the solo camera men and women did tricks as they came in, spinning around in their parachutes seconds before landing. Chantal started swearing, I looked up in fascination and my only thought was "I WANT TO DO THAT!"

We got all strapped up in our diving suits and met our instructors - mine's name was Joel. When the plane arrived, we had to be led to the plane by our dive masters and sit with our legs around a bench in front of the instructors who started to attach us to them. The ride up was probably the most stressful as Joel kept showing me the gauge on his arm that measured our altitude while he double and triple checked that we were properly attached to eachother. I tried to avoid thinking about just how well we were connected. Chantal and I ended up at the back of the plane, which meant we were last to jump. We had to sit and watch the 6 other divers hang out of the plane, and then experience the awful feeling of the plane bouncing up and down when they finally jumped.

Suddenly I was being pushed to the front of the plane, and hung out the door, waiting for Joel to throw us out. I looked back for a picture, and then had to keep my head resting against his shoulder as I went from looking at the roof of the plane to ground 12 000 feet below me. That three second rush was unreal, but I managed to remember my dad telling me that he unconsciously started doggy paddling in the air and avoided it. Once Joel sorted out his side of things, I was allowed to shift and I spent the next 30 seconds free falling thousands of feet, pushing my arms hard against the force of gravity. It was absolutely spectacular. The rush is unbelievable and it was my favourite part of the jump. Lucky for me, Joel remembered the proper time to pull the parachute, and it released properly. At this point, my only job was to admire the scenery. It was quite the easy job. If I had jumped in Edmonton, I would have been able to see the boring brown and grey patchwork quilt of farmland on the prairies. In Taupo, I could see 3 volcanos, the entire lake (which is as large as Singapore), and the town of Taupo itself. It was so beautiful that I had a what felt like a permanent smile stuck on my face and I wasn't positive it would come off. The ground came up too soon, but landing was flawless and I ended up standing on my feet- although at the same time I kind of wanted to fall and hug the ground.

Chantal ran up and shouted "That was AMAZING!" My first thought: Let's do that again.

Wai-o-Tapu

The Rotorua area of New Zealand is a geological thermal zone. Parts of town have steam rising from the ground and there are kilometres of pipes above the ground that somehow carry the geothermal energy to power stations.

Chantal and I decided to go on a morning tour of Wai-o-Tapu, which means "Sacred Waters". It is a reserve area that is full of a weird assortment of hot spots that reminded me of Yellowstone National Park. We started at the boiling mud pools, which were similar to the 'paint pots' in Yellowstone. It was really cool to see the ground bubble and boil like that. Next, we headed to see the Lady Knox Geyser. The geyser goes off every day at 10:15 AM, which would be exciting, except I've seen Old Faithful in Yellowstone before, and that has a naturally occurring eruption. Lady Knox has a triggered eruption that goes off with the aid of soap, which acts as a surfactant so they can always decide when the geyser will go off. Still, it's pretty amazing to see water (somewhat) naturally gush up against gravity, and it was cool to hear the history of how the geyser was discovered (some prisoners working in the area came for a bath and their soap made the water shoot up).

After Lady Knox, we continued on to the reserve itself, which was well worth the price of admission. It had bright green sulphur lakes, a "Champagne Pool" that had a sitting temperature above boiling that resulted in endless steam rolling off the pool, random little holes filled with bubbling water that looked like they would be perfect for a Kraft Dinner commercial, and it was all surrounded by a fantastic forest area that seemed like a mix between Jurassic Park and a world that Dr Seuss created. Near the end of the reserve, we followed a trail that led out of the geothermal area and ended at a waterfall that emptied into a huge, beautiful lake looking out at the rolling hills around the area. Such a beautiful way to spend our morning.

Tamaki Cultural Village

After Hobbiton, we headed on to our stop for the night: Rotorua. While running around all the hobbit holes was completely worthwhile, the afternoon spent there meant we didn't have much time to see Rotorua, since our evening booked up with tickets to the Tamaki Maori Culture Show complete with a delicious Hangi.

The tour started at our hostel when a driver picked us up and started explaining how our evening would go, and chose one of our strong men to be a chief. Now I realize they are being true to history, but I really wish they would have offered women the chance to be chief so we could pretend genders were equal here in 2011. Then again, being a chief seemed a bit intimidating, and I guess I'm happy they didn't offer me the chance.  Moving on..

Three groups of tourists filed into an entrance area lead by their 3 chosen male chiefs to meet the tribe. The Maori males did their best to intimidate us with chanting, yelling, dancing, and advancing at us with spears. Graham, one of our chiefs, accepted the Maori gift of peace (a fern) and we were welcomed into their home to meet with the tribe and see how they would have lived before colonization. Their home was an accurate representation of the small huts they lived in before Europeans arrived - low buildings with small doors. Sometimes the huts were on stilts. The Maori were all very well informed, and each had a great sense of humour. They were joking about how they didn't live in huts anymore due to things like running water and Facebook. As someone who worked in Edmonton's historical park, I sympathized with them on this point as I've been asked if I live in the Fort at night. We wandered through the village and learned about music, games, dances, and other things they did with their time.

A bell rang, and we all gathered near the area where they cook the food known as the Hangi. In the morning, they placed meat (beef, lamb) and vegetables (carrots, potatoes) deep into the ground over stones heated by fire. The food cooked throughout the day, and we watched as they dug it up, steam rising from the ground and the delicious smell of food filling the air.

While they prepared the food, we were entertained by choreographed Maori song and dance (they dance with Poi which I have always found really cool) and told stories of some of their legends.

Finally, they called us into the dining hall. The wait did not disappoint. The food filled two tables, and Chantal and I celebrated our good life decisions by sharing a bottle of wine and eating way too much. Wonderful.

I'd Show You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

We left Auckland early on Monday morning, and started heading south. We stopped in Paeroa, home of the famous New Zealand drink L & P (short for lemon and paeroa). Since we were specifically in the town where it was made, I figured I had to try some. It was good, but really just tasted like lemon flavoured pop, and I don't really care for pop. I'm still up for trying some with alcohol though.

Our second stop was for lunch at Shire's Rest near Matamata, which is a farm that is home to the Lord of the Rings set for Hobbiton. After the scenes in the Shire were filmed for Lord of the Rings, the crew came to strip the set and revert it back to its original hilly farmland. However, due to bad weather, they could not remove all of the hobbit holes for fear of collapsing the hills. In the meantime, the owner of the sheep farm realized this could be a place for tourists and Lord of the Rings fans to come and see the set, so the rest of the area was preserved. I was told to not get my hopes up about it because while the rolling grassy hills are cool, the hobbit holes have been reduced to simple white walls set in the hills. However, since Peter Jackson is currently running around New Zealand filming scenes for the Hobbit, the area has been recreated as it was for Lord of the Rings. Filming actually wrapped up just a week before we got there, and everything was still in perfect condition. It turns out that they are going to keep up the Hobbit holes this time around with 4 permanent gardeners to maintain the area. This isn't surprising, since it lets silly LotR fans and tourists like me come and experience the Shire. It still felt a little more special to know that we had just missed the film crew, and made me that much more excited to see the films.

While we waited for our tour to start, we grabbed some lunch. One item on the menu was called "Second Breakfast," which is an awesome reference to the movies. I settled for a burger, and got a Lord of the Rings beer called “SobeRing Thought”. It was brewed especially for the crew during filming- the beer is only 1% so it allows them to drink on the job without having to worry about becoming drunk. The beer wasn't fantastic, but the novelty of drinking Lord of the Rings beer was worth it.

Since the area was originally a sheep farm and still functions as one, they had sheep shearing demonstrations. That was quite interesting. The sheep stayed completely docile in between the shearer's legs while he took an electric razor to the excess of wool on her body. When he was finished, he encouraged us to feel the wool and sheep's body- you could instantly feel the lanolin that her skin was giving off when he was done.

But the real attraction was, of course, going into Hobbiton. When Peter Jackson's scouts found the area, they couldn't get over how perfectly it corresponded to the descriptions in Tolkien books--from the lake to the party tree, it was almost exactly as the novels described. Originally, there were 37 Hobbit holes in the area including the Green Dragon Inn. For The Hobbit movie, a few more were built. Bag End and Rosie and Sam's house were exactly like they were in the films. The tour guide had a plethora of cool facts and trivia, like how even though Hobbiton is set on a functioning sheep farm, those sheep weren't the 'right' ones, so they had to ship in other breeds. She also said that around 35 percent of all people who come to Hobbiton have never actually seen the Lord of the Rings movies. The poor suckers were dragged in by their Hobbit Loving partners. Regardless, the area is absolutely gorgeous.

One of the funniest stories was the oak tree that is supposed to hang over Bag End. The tree was one of the few things that wasn't naturally growing in the area. For the Lord of the Rings films, they used 3D imaging to scan an oak tree at another location nearby, and then transported it by cutting it up and reassembling it like a puzzle. They imported the leaves from Taiwan. The issue with this was that eventually, the tree started to rot which made a safety hazard and they had to remove it. For the Hobbit movies, they designed a synthetic oak tree made entirely of plastic- bark and all. This works perfectly of course, until they need to film a fall or winter scene and the 'oak tree' is still as green and lush as ever.

At one point our tour guide had a trivia question that asked, “What was written on the door of Bilbo Baggins' house on the weeks leading up to his party?” Our group was silent, so I brought out my inner nerd and answered “No admittance- except on party business” and won a fake leaf from the fake oak tree. I felt special.

I would show you actual pictures, but in order to go in to Hobbiton, we had to sign crazy confidentiality agreements stating that we would not post pictures anywhere online- whether that be facebook, twitter, or even email. I'm not even allowed to show you my pictures in person until the movie is released. You'll just have to come see it yourself.

Welcome to Auckland

We arrived at our Auckland hostel at around 7:30 in the morning. Luckily for us, jet lag wasn't really a problem since Edmonton is only 4 hours ahead. The trick is, it's a day behind! (Well, technically, Edmonton is 20 hours behind). It's confusing at first, but you get used to it.

The city was a bit dead, but that wasn't surprising considering how early it was on a Sunday morning. We had left Edmonton in the midst of the first blizzard of the year, and so coming to Auckland was especially nice since we could walk around in sandals and light sweaters. We spent the morning enjoying wandering around the city and getting a sim card for my cell phone. Around noon, we headed up to the top of the Sky Tower that offered an amazing view of the city. The tower stands 328 metres tall, and you can ride an elevator up to the Sky Deck, which is 220 metres from the ground. The pictures from the top were spectacular. You could see over all of the sky scrapers to the surrounding volcanoes – apparently you can see up to 80 km in each direction. The Sky Tower actually ended up being my favourite part of the city. The employees also took pictures of Chantal and I in front of a green screen, and when we went down to the ground again, they had printed really tacky pictures of us, which turned into one of the best (horrible) pictures of us.

Our day in Auckland was randomly on the same day of the ITU Triathlon World Cup that was going in the city, and so the entire downtown core was shut down to vehicles to make way for the athletes. While the morning race had a few spectators, the afternoon hosted the elite leagues of the race, and you could not find a spot to stand and watch along the track it was so popular. We watched for a while, and being the avid sports fan that I am, I was mostly entertained by the motorbikes that carried camera men zooming along behind the athletes. In the end we headed to the harbour area for happy hour to admire our sun burns (oops, we forgot about sun screen) and have a toast to the start of our new adventure.

True to its reputation, Auckland lacked the vibe of an amazing city that I've gotten from so many others. I don't think I'd stay there, but for a metropolitan area it was pretty cool - the harbour spectacular, and you can't beat the culture that comes from an area with over a million people.

New Zealand, You Had Me at Hello

Another reason that I decided to come to New Zealand was because my friend Danna wanted to go. As we both tried to figure out the best way to get there, our situations pulled us apart. I didn't want to keep waiting around Edmonton for an opportunity to leave, and Danna wanted to stay home for Christmas. I was close to booking a plane ticket for November when I started to bug my friend Chantal about coming. I made snarky little comments at every chance I got about her coming with me, but I didn't think they were actually working until she called me up and said she actually wanted to come. Look at how that peer pressure paid off! I have a travel buddy!

The flight from Edmonton to Vancouver was unremarkable. Point A to Point B. The excitement began in Vancouver's airport where our destination was in sight. Normally, I get no pleasure out of flying. Being cramped up for 14 hours with no leg room is never something to look forward to. But Air New Zealand was actually entertaining. I flew to Australia through Auckland a few years ago, but I only remember the amazing in-flight entertainment system. The pre take-off safety procedures video was filmed with the All Blacks – New Zealand's national rugby team and was absolutely hilarious and cheeky. I usually flip through a magazine while I am told how to fasten an oxygen mask, but this one had me laughing as the huge rugby players tried to help a cheering granny to her seat. The dinner meal was delicious, and came with a second glass of New Zealand wine. At the start of our flight, we were given the chance to take a new Zealand themed quiz that had Chantal and I studying up on Kiwi trivia from my Lonely Planet book. Did you know that New Zealand has their own native Christmas trees called Pohutukawa that have large red blossoms every December? I didn't. Even the Air Hosts had bright coloured uniforms with Pacific-style patterns. By the time we landed in Auckland, I felt entirely welcomed to the country, which was a big difference from other airlines that I've flown with. Is this the start of the fabled Kiwi hospitality?

I Graduated! .. Now What?

My convocation was on November 16. It was nice to have an 'official' end to my degree that encouraged me to look back and reflect on all of the hard work I have put in to the last four years. Despite all the hardships, the biggest feeling I have is accomplishment. The natural question that comes from graduation is “what comes next?” Like the majority of grads, I have absolutely no idea what comes next. I don't want to go back to school (at least yet) and I can't imagine having a 9-5 job with two weeks of vacation a year when one of my favourite things to do is travel.

Travel.

Where to go? What to do? I want to go far far away from Edmonton where it isn't feasible to leave for two weeks and return to a job that I don't see having long term potential anyways. France was my last trip abroad, and I found the language barrier a bit intimidating (although it got better as I learned the language, and helped that almost everyone spoke just enough English to get by). I just don't feel like I'm ready to learn another language at this point. I am craving an English speaking country.

I have already been to Australia, the economy in Ireland has all the Irish people running to other countries for work, the USA isn't far enough away to feel like a real trip, and I am eligible for a 5 year work visa in the UK which I don't want to take advantage of until I am sure I can handle being away from everyone I know for longer than a few months.

What's this? A cheap seat to New Zealand two days after Convocation? A Working Holiday Visa that was accepted in two days? Good enough reason for me. Let's do this.